Transcriber: David DeRuwe
I bet you’ve got a weird little hobby.
Maybe it’s cake baking.
Maybe it’s beer brewing.
Maybe it’s foraging for wild mushrooms.
Maybe even naked rugby - yeah, that’s a thing.
Don't worry, I won't make you say it out loud.
But what if I told you your hobby could help heal
one of the most insidious things affecting our society today - polarization?
In my own weird journey, I’ve come to believe in the power of niche
to overcome the malignant effects of polarization.
That’s right.
Your weird little hobby,
your curious sport,
your nerdy creative activity
has uniquely positioned you to help save the world.
And good news, the first step is easy!
Instead of going wider,
spending all your free time scrolling social media,
and engaging with people that you barely know,
you just go deeper, spending more time with people inside your weird little hobby
because deeper is where the real connections happen.
I’ve seen it over and over again
in my own weird little niche, which is knitting.
I learned to knit at the age of 16 when on a family road trip.
And when that teacher put those sticks and string into my hands,
and I watched as my fingers created a fabric out of nothing,
it was pure magic.
I got so addicted that by the time we got back from the road trip,
I'd already made a whole cable sweater.
But when I got back home, I couldn't find any other cool teenagers to knit with.
Imagine that, right?
But I dreamed of one day finding other people
who were as obsessed at knitting as I was and finding a place to do that with them.
Fast forward 20 years,
and I started a second career by opening a local yarn store called Loops.
Fast forward another 15 years, and Loops has grown
into a worldwide knitting brand called Knit Stars
that includes online master class events
that connect tens of thousands of knitters around the world,
and together, we all geek out over the latest knitting techniques,
and we get inspired by knitting celebrities.
Yeah, knitting celebrities.
That’s a thing too.
There is a lot that would really surprise you about us knitters.
I know all of you think of us as so all Kumbaya.
We’re just a bunch of crazy old cat ladies sitting around making itchy sweaters
that no one will ever wear and watching reruns of “The Golden Girls.”
Right? But knitters can be serious badasses.
In fact, knitting and craft have been associated with activism
for hundreds of years.
During the U.S. Revolutionary War,
women knitted garments instead of importing them,
a defiantly patriotic act.
And have you ever heard of knitting spies?
During World War Two, women in the Belgian resistance
famously knitted coded messages into knitted garments.
Knitting is actually perfect for this
because all knitting is made up of just two stitches: knit and purl,
just like Morse code - dash dot.
In 2006, crafter and researcher Betsy Greer coined a new term,
“craftivism.”
Betsy believed that craft and positive activism
could save not only the soul but also the world.
Craftivism is about raising consciousness,
about creating a better world stitch by stitch,
and about creating wider conversations about uncomfortable social issues.
Betsy said that there are actually different expressions of craftivism.
It can be subversive, as in those World War Two spy knitters.
It can be confrontational, as in anti-war statements
or other forms of protest.
Craftivism can also be practiced
in a quieter, creative, more compassionate way.
Maybe you’ve heard of a movement called “yarn bombing.”
This is when knit and crochet installations
suddenly appear in public places overnight.
As Betsy explained, “Craftivism is welcoming, not dividing.
It's a tool to create a small part of the warmer, friendlier,
more colorful world we all hope to see in the future.”
From the time I open a yarn store,
you see this magic happen on the Loops couch.
You see all these people -
old, young, rich, poor, all races, all religions, all genders -
coming together to create.
Now, the scientific benefits of knitting are well known.
It's been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce depression and anxiety,
slow the onset of dementia, and even trigger the release of serotonin.
But I’ve come to believe the greatest benefit of knitting
may be the deep social connection that it creates.
There’s just something about it
when we’re all sitting together making things with our hands,
and in that moment, a special kind of connection and safety is created.
And in that safe space, we can have the difficult but necessary conversations,
really see and hear and understand other people's lived experiences.
This kind of thing does not happen in a tweet
where everyone is so quick to judge and attack.
For lots of us, things have gotten so polarized.
It could even happen
around the Thanksgiving table with your family
without somebody hurling the stuffing and barging out the door.
But when you choose to go deeper, not wider,
and use your personal craftivism superpower
to open the door to conversation,
this can lead to real understanding, true healing, and lasting positive change.
One story that’s really stuck with me -
I had a friend who was going through a really difficult divorce.
Her husband had come out as gay,
and when they sat down together
to tell their teenage daughter that they were getting divorced,
she just completely shut down.
No matter what they did, they couldn’t get her to talk.
Finally, one day in desperation,
my friend grabbed her needles and her yarn,
and she asked her daughter if she could teach her how to knit.
At first, her daughter just watched, but after a while,
she couldn’t resist taking that colorful, soft yarn into our own hands.
And as her fingers began to form the stitches,
all the words just kept tumbling out.
All that pain and fear and sadness -
being creative together enabled them to talk about it
and finally talk through it.
In our world today, everyone is vulnerable to disconnection and polarization.
In fact, recently polarization came up in the global knitting community
in a very intense way.
What started as a really important conversation
about racism and inclusivity in the knitting space,
about the historical stigmas of knitting and race and gender,
very quickly escalated into personal attacks.
And all of the major brands and designers and dyers
and so many thought leaders became really afraid,
and they pulled inward and stopped sharing and collaborating.
And it put the knitting world in a place of deciding,
“Do we want to be separate, or do we want to close our polls,
to have the difficult conversations,
to reknit the connections and form new ones?
Could we create a fabric that was stronger and more beautiful than before?”
And then one day, someone online demanded that I pick a side,
and I had an “aha” moment.
If I pick a side, and we all pick a side,
and we keep pulling further and further apart,
what will happen to our connection, our fabric?
So what did I do?
I decided to commit to do my part to knit the world together.
I invited a well-known craftivist named Diane Ivey
to create a workshop for Knit Stars, and she entitled it
“Moving Forward Together from Social Media to Building Inclusive Communities.”
When we first announced to our Knit Stars owners
that we were going to do this workshop, a lot of people asked
“Why? What does this have to do with knitting?”
And some of them even demanded refunds.
But you know what?
That workshop had and will continue to have a lasting impact.
It opened up important, deep, respectful conversations.
And as Knit Stars owner Lynn put it,
“This is absolutely the message we all needed to hear.
Thank you, Diane,
for helping us see how much further we have to go on the path to equity.”
You have this same power.
Inside of your weird, little hobby,
you can spark powerful conversations and real lasting change.
You and your fellow mushroom foragers can help save the world.
So go out and brew that beer together,
make more time to quilt those quilts together,
and go deep.
Be the kind of craftivist that creates connections.
Thanks.